According to Alhunaity, the scammer said, "You did not pay the bill and you need to pay it now in 25 minutes or the electric will be cut down and the crew is on the way to cut it down.”

Alhunaity challenged the caller, saying he already sent a check, but the scammer said it hadn't posted.

Afraid his inventory was at stake, Alhunaity went to CVS and loaded the money on a pre-paid card as the caller demanded.

“Not that we are stupid, we got called, but we were trying to protect our business, and that's why we acted fast and we paid the money,” said Alhunaity. “I say it’s a professional. They need to be caught.”

“They're saying put money on a Green Dot card, that should be your first trigger, because no legitimate business is going to tell you to pay a bill that way,” said Detective Eric Higgins. “These guys are very good at what they do and they’re very convincing. So for you, for safeguards, say, “Hey, look, before I do anything I want to verify who you are.’”

The Covington Police Department said after the money is placed on the card, the target is told to call 1-800-877-8436

We called the 1-800 number given by the scammers and it sounds completely legit.

“It sounds legitimate, but it's not,” said Higgins.

WLWT eventually reached a real person who hung up when we questioned him.

Police said if you get a call like that, ask the caller for their number, hang up, and then see if the number is legitimate by verifying it yourself.

You can do that by going to the company's website or pulling up your bill to find a number.

Duke assured us if a company representative is really calling about your account, they'll give you information only you and Duke Energy know, and you'll get several notifications of delinquent accounts before your service is cut off.